Are The Smoky Mountains Recession Friendly?
It was recently announced that 9 million Great Smoky Mountain National Park visitors spent $800million during the past year which is the most of any US National Park. My first thought is that the nearly $90 per person spending is pretty good given that we are in the middle of a very difficult recession. We have however seen this before. The Gatlinburg area has always fared well during this sort of economic environment. During challenging times, families considering cost cutting still choose to have their vacation trips but they often do it in a more affordable fashion. People who usually take a week long vacation to the beach may choose instead to enjoy a 3 or 4 day trip to the mountains for several reasons. The fact is that the long weekend or 4 day trip to the Gatlinburg area is more affordable than the beach for a number of reasons: For travelers from most of the Eastern United States (and much of the US population in general) the drive to the Smokies is no more than a day'...